Michael Nierenberg’s Rithm Capital has a new vision for the 16-building office portfolio it purchased from Paramount Group — one that’s going to come with $250 million of new capital improvements.
Rithm Capital will rebrand Paramount Group as Elecor Properties, a real estate platform that will aim to position what was Paramount’s 13.8 million-square-foot New York and San Francisco office portfolio into upgraded Class A offices built for the changing workplaces of the post-COVID 21st century, Commercial Observer can first report.
Nierenberg, chairman, CEO and president of Rithm Capital, told CO that his firm aims to bring a hospitality mindset and approach to traditional office assets in two of America’s biggest cities and hottest office markets.
“We want it to be a more of a hospitality and lifestyle experience for folks who will be participants in the buildings, including some of the existing tenants,” said Nierenberg. “And to do that you have to differentiate your product offering from the legacy office buildings here in New York and San Francisco.”
Rithm Capital, an alternatives firm and publicly traded mortgage REIT, acquired Paramount Group’s entire office profile for $1.7 billion in September 2025, a deal that came days after Rithm acquired Crestline, a $17 billion private credit firm, in an ambitious push to expand the firm’s asset base.
Today, Rithm Capital holds $63 billion in investable assets, a $53 billion balance sheet, with its real estate and credit strategies executed across several operating companies that include Genesis Capital, NewRez and Sculptor.
The rebrand of Paramount Group to Elecor Properties was sparked by a desire to distance the office assets that were owned by Paramount from the legacy noise surrounding the movie studio conglomerate Paramount Pictures, according to Nierenberg.
“The idea is let’s start something fresh and rebrand, because, quite frankly, Paramount as a brand does not work relative to Paramount the movie and entertainment business,” he explained. “With Elecor Properties, we tried to come up with a name similar to Rithm: It’s not bravado; it’s unique and sounds nice. Elecor recalls something elegant and elevating.”
Peter Brindley, executive vice president and head of real estate at Elecor Properties, had been with Paramount Group for 15 years prior to the 2025 acquisition. Brindley will oversee the entire Elecor Properties office portfolio together with a group of leasing, acquisition and investment experts.
“The truth is we have an exceptional team, and this is a story of continuity and acceleration,” said Brindley. “We’re really proud of what we’ve built, which is a trophy-quality portfolio, and the team is coming through this acquisition feeling more energized than ever before.”
Nierenberg has empowered Brindley and his crew of office mavens to make decisions and “take the portfolio to the next level,” according to Brindley. The results speak for themselves: Rithm achieved 1.75 million square feet of leasing across its portfolio in 2025 — its highest volume ever.
These deals included five transactions in excess of 100,000 square feet. Piper Sandler signed a lease for 136,175 square feet at 1301 Avenue of Americas; Benesch signed a lease for 120,940 square feet at 1301 Avenue of the Americas; Natixis signed a lease for 205,378 square feet at 1633 Broadway; Kirkland & Ellis signed for 131,054 square feet at 900 Third Avenue; and Cushman & Wakefield signed for 134,111 square feet at 31 West 52nd Street.
“Everything we are doing is in recognition of companies that continue to choose to elevate the quality of their real estate,” said Brindley. “And the reason they’re choosing to elevate their real estate experience in this way is to enhance collaborative culture, energize their teams and drive productivity — it’s effectively this flight-to-quality phenomenon you hear about.”
To this end, Rithm will now invest $250 million into the Elecor Properties office portfolio with key joint venture partners.
These capital improvements will include transforming the ground-floor lobby and second-floor amenity space at 1633 Broadway, a 2.6 million-square-foot office complex that stands as one of the largest buildings in New York; redesigning the atrium and ground floor at One Market Plaza, a two-tower, 1.6 million-square-foot office complex in San Francisco; and creating a new lobby and amenity space at One Front Street, a 38-story, 645,000-square-foot office tower in San Francisco.
Rithm’s office portfolio’s occupancy stands at 92 percent leased.
“We’re very excited to execute on our plan to deploy capital in the way we know how to meet current tenant demand,” said Brindley. “Tenants are more discerning than ever, and we have a very exciting formula to deliver and drive out-performance.”
Jonny Nierenberg, vice president at Rithm Capital, noted that Elecor Properties secured the 1.75 million square feet of leasing deals before Rithm Capital infused the firm with new capital and its many resources, and that the company is now expected to benefit from that in addition to leasing momentum in New York and San Francisco this year and beyond.
“You put those things together: the market coming at you, the perseverance of the team, the quality of the assets prior to the capital being infused, and now we launch this rebrand,” said Nierenberg. “I think we’ll only see green shoots in the office space”.
Michael Nierenberg told CO he expects Elecor Properties to grow its office portfolio in the future.
“Hopefully you’ll see us acquire more office and real estate over time,” he said. “We’re super excited with what we think their trajectory is on a go-forward basis, including growing rents and creating what we think is one of the premiere office portfolios in the world.”
Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com.
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